In electrical engineering, a charging station is any stationary apparatus or electrical installation which serves to supply energy to mobile rechargeable battery-operated devices, machines or motor vehicles by simple placement or insertion, without the energy store—for example the traction battery of an electric car—having to be removed. Charging stations for electric cars are sometimes also called “electricity charging stations” and can comprise a plurality of charging points.
In particular, high-performance direct-current charging systems such as the so-called combined charging system (CCS) which is widespread throughout Europe are known in this respect. During direct-current charging of this generic type, direct current is fed from the charging column directly into the vehicle and, for this purpose, provided by way of a powerful rectifier from the power grid or by way of large buffer accumulators at solar charging stations. The vehicle contains a battery management system which communicates with the charging column in order to adjust the current intensity or to terminate the process when a capacity limit is reached.
In this case, the power electronics are usually located in the charging column. Since the direct-current connections of the charging column are connected directly to corresponding connections of the traction battery, high charging currents can be transmitted with a low level of loss, this allowing short charging times but also generating a considerable amount of waste heat.
Different concepts for cooling charging systems for electric vehicles are also known. DE102011082565A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, for example, discloses an electric charging system for battery-operated motor vehicles which dispenses with integrating the battery module into the vehicle-side coolant/refrigerant circuit, so that heat exchange between the battery cells and an external cooling system takes place only via a mechanical interface as required during a charging process. A contact area which is fitted to the external cooling system and, as a single part, constitutes a second half of the heat exchanger, is intended to make a contribution to the external cooling system being able to be better utilized as part of a charging infrastructure, wherein a large number of vehicles can be served.
US2014322570A, which is incorporated by reference herein, relates to a battery apparatus comprising a battery which is charged using external power, a charging-related apparatus comprising a charging apparatus which is used for charging the battery, and a coolant apparatus which serves to introduce a coolant for cooling the battery and the charging apparatus into the battery apparatus and the charging-related apparatus. The first coolant apparatus is intended to allow switchover between a first state, in which the coolant is introduced into the battery apparatus, and a second state, in which the coolant is introduced into the charging-related apparatus.
FR2978702A, which is incorporated by reference herein, US2009256523A, which is incorporated by reference herein, and US2011111269A, which is incorporated by reference herein, discuss further system cooling concepts.